TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Russian officers and state media downplayed President Joe Biden’s surprise visit to Ukraine on Monday, portray Kyiv as a U.S. puppet and sustaining Moscow’s forces will prevail regardless of Washington’s pledges to ship extra weapons to Ukraine.
Biden met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy within the Ukrainian capital in a defiant show of Western solidarity with a rustic nonetheless combating what he referred to as “a brutal and unjust struggle” days earlier than the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
The visit additionally got here on the eve of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s scheduled state-of-the-nation tackle, which some in Russia anticipate to set the tone for the yr forward — together with for Putin’s bogged-down marketing campaign in Ukraine.
Biden spent greater than 5 hours in Kyiv, consulting with Zelenskyy on subsequent steps, honoring the nation’s fallen troopers and seeing U.S. embassy employees.
He introduced an extra half-billion {dollars} in U.S. help — on prime of the greater than $50 billion already supplied — for shells for howitzers, anti-tank missiles, air surveillance radars and different assist however no new superior weaponry.
Russian state tv lined the visit extensively, with anchors saying that it was clear that Biden “runs issues” in Ukraine, which inserts into the Kremlin’s narrative that Zelesnkyy’s authorities is a stooge of the U.S. administration.
A Russian-installed official within the occupied Zaporizhzhia area, Vladimir Rogov, was quoted by Russia’s state information RIA Novosti information company as saying that Zelenskyy “regarded like a servant subsequent to Biden.”
Different commentators famous that Biden would possibly search re-election in 2024 and stated his visit to Kyiv kicked off his marketing campaign.
“Biden in Kyiv began his election marketing campaign in essentially the most heroic environment so as to show to everybody that he can nonetheless ‘do it identical to within the good outdated days’,” senior Russian lawmaker Konstantin Kosachev stated in a Telegram submit, including that “Kyiv was left with no selection by to try to drive individuals to the mindless slaughter as half of Biden’s election marketing campaign.”
Professional-Kremlin pundits on state TV additionally alleged that Biden acquired safety ensures from Moscow forward of the visit. U.S. nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan stated that the U.S. authorities notified Moscow of Biden’s visit to Kyiv shortly earlier than his departure from Washington “for deconfliction functions” in an effort to keep away from any miscalculation that would deliver the 2 nuclear-armed nations into direct battle.
“Everybody is aware of that if Russia stated that it would not hit Kyiv throughout a visit of some statesmen there, it means it will by no means occur, as a result of we’re those who hold their phrase, those that are on the aspect of the great and the civilized,” pro-Kremlin political analyst Sergei Markov stated in a political discuss present on state Russia 1 TV channel.
The deputy head of Russia’s Safety Council and former president, Dmitry Medvedev, in a submit on the Telegram messaging app additionally claimed that Biden had acquired “security ensures.”
Medvedev stated Biden “pledged allegiance to the neo-Nazi regime” — as Kremlin officers refer to Ukraine’s authorities — and promised it extra weapons, however the hundreds of thousands of individuals leaving Ukraine present a solution “to the query of who the longer term belongs to.”
And state TV journalist Andrei Medvedev in a Telegram submit merely said: “Will this visit affect the ultimate end result of the struggle? No. Completely not,” though admitting that it will affect “the course of the hostilities in the meanwhile and morale of Ukrainian residents.”
Political analyst Tatyana Stanovaya stated the Kremlin will view Biden’s visit as “but yet another piece of proof that the U.S. has utterly wager on Russia’s strategic defeat within the struggle, and that the struggle itself has irrevocably was a struggle between Russia and the West.”
Stanovaya stated Putin’s state-of-the-nation speech on Tuesday “was anticipated to be very hawkish, geared toward defiantly breaking off relations with the West,” however after Biden’s visit to Kyiv, “extra edits could be made to make it even harsher.”
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Comply with AP’s protection of the struggle at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
